American nuclear reactors are well into middle age. The median age of an operating reactor in the U.S. is 34 years, placing start-up in midst of the Carter administration.
Subprime lending is growing faster in black areas than in white areas.
Sammy Sosa grew up without a father in the back of a converted public hospital in San Pedro de Macoris, a dusty seaside town in the Dominican Republic. His father, Juan Montero, died when Sosa was 5.
Polygraphs are not allowed as evidence in most U.S. courts, but they're routinely used in police investigations, and the Defense Department relies heavily on them for security screening.
Community groups contend that door-to-door loan sales are often followed by foreclosures.
After a plane or train crash, the National Transportation Safety Board dispatches its experts within two hours. The investigators in their familiar jackets take charge of the scene, secure evidence, follow leads.
The term 'triage' normally means deciding who gets attention first.
There is no accurate or useful 'profile' of students who engage in targeted school violence. Some come from good homes, some from bad. Some have good grades, some bad.
Lie detectors sometimes work because people believe they work, deterring the wrong people from applying for jobs in the first place, or prompting admissions of guilt during interrogations.
Groups that work in black neighborhoods around the country have contended that much of subprime lending is 'predatory lending.'
Disclosure of private e-mails from government officials has been a legal issue in many states.
Unlike the United States Congress, which mostly forbids outside employment, state legislatures are generally composed of people with other careers.
Companies are accustomed to dismissing employees for misuse of computers at work.
Cincinnatians support a symphony, an opera, a ballet, museums, many galleries and theater groups.
Firefighters go where they're needed, sometimes ignoring the dangers even when no one is inside a burning building to be saved.
The entire federal budget for landslide research is $3.5 million a year - far less than the property value lost on a single day when 17 mansions slid down a hill in 2005 in Laguna Beach, Calif.
In Minneapolis, the overhead sky walks protect pedestrians from the winter cold and snow.
A foundation representing firefighters who die in the line of duty is calling for Congress to strip the Centers for Disease Control of its role investigating firefighter deaths.
Nine of 10 whites in Chicago borrow from top-drawer banks and mortgage companies, which the industry calls prime lenders. They lend to people with A credit ratings, making loans at competitive rates.
Fans love Sosa for his exuberance, for the kisses he blows to his mother, wife and four children. He is Slammin' Sammy, a fairy-tale figure rising from poverty in the Dominican Republic to the 55th floor above Chicago's Lake Shore Drive.
Like most other states, Illinois has little regulation of the economic interests of legislators and relies on public disclosure to keep the lawmaking honest.
Fans love McGwire for his powerful physique, for his on-field hugs of his son, the part-time bat boy. He is Big Mac, or Paul Bunyan in Cardinals red with a white-ash bat instead of an ax.
Forty states have sued tobacco companies over the costs of health care for residents on Medicaid and public assistance.
In votes cast, Latinos have increased to five million in the 1996 Presidential election, up from two million in the 1976 election. The number of Hispanic elected officials has not risen so fast.
Some employees are protected by union or personal contracts that limit reasons for dismissal.
Because appearing to be fair is part of being fair, most mainstream news organizations discourage marching for causes, displaying political bumper stickers or giving cash to candidates.
Humidity notwithstanding, summer seems to bring out the best of Cincinnati.
I am not one to seek simple causes.
Cities vary widely in the use of DNA testing.
Todd Palin's frequent presence in the governor's office led some in Juneau to call him the 'Shadow Governor.' But it had never been clear, at least to the public, what roles he played.
If police officers routinely issue tickets for the most serious traffic offenses, they'll be treating drivers of all races, sexes, and ages equally.
In Chicago, integrated neighborhoods do not stay integrated for long.
'J'eet jet?' is still the standard way for a Pittsburgher to ask if you're ready for a meal, but the meal itself is no longer limited to chipped ham and an Iron City beer.
ABC forbids political activity by journalists.
Jason McDermott's political career, however bogus, appears to have had an early and promising start.
FEMA says that it does not factor in previous losses into its decisions on applications to redraw the flood zones.
Every scandal has its road kill: the pedestrians who stumble into the headlights of the oncoming 18-wheeler.
Although some Clinton biographers have been quick to label Alinsky a communist, he maintained that he never joined the Communist Party.
At one point, Sarah Palin sent her husband instructions to stock up on 'fresh fruit and veggies' for the kids, and 'as little processed foods as possible.'
The Manhattan district attorney has closed the well-publicized investigation of the handling of the $300 million fortune of reclusive heiress Huguette Clark - without charging anyone with a crime.
New York state ethics rules prohibit lawyers from soliciting gifts from clients 'for the benefit of the lawyer or a person related to the lawyer.'
The senior thesis of Hillary D. Rodham, Wellesley College class of 1969, has been speculated about, spun, analyzed, debated, criticized and defended. But rarely has it been read, because for the eight years of Bill Clinton's presidency it was locked away.
If he is convicted, Dr. Kevorkian says he will die a martyr's death by going on a hunger strike.
William Andrews Clark was caught in a bribery scandal during a campaign for the U.S. Senate - he was said to describe the Montana legislators this way: 'I never bought a man who wasn't for sale.'
In Illinois, where legislators are paid $45,000, plus as much as $10,000 for leadership work, about half are full-time politicians.
For the first six years of his career, Sammy Sosa was one of the least patient players in the game. He could hit the long ball and steal a base, but he was undisciplined.
The long view of the Census bureau allows some changes that are taken for granted to be studied in more detail. Everyone knows, for example, that people get married later than they used to.
Reggie Campbell and Kathleen Goldsmith are participants in an American success story, the unprecedented boom of home-buying by African-Americans in the 1990s. Only he is black and she is white. When he moved into the neighborhood, she moved out.
Many police departments still use DNA evidence the way they have used fingerprints and tire tracks: to determine whether a suspect committed the crime.
